Even Clumsy People Can Walk the Path of the Ninja
by Fireblazezz
Summary: Even clumsy people can walk the Path of the Ninja... especially with the help of a hotheaded trainer. Rated T for language and possible upcoming violence, my opinion of the Clumsy Ninja's and his trainer's adventure. Note: The title might be changed in the future.
1. The Clumsy Ninja and the HotheadedTrainr

**This story is based on the app Clumsy Ninja, and the character Hikaru's role is inspired of the same role as the role You play in the game. Note that I caught myself to have written Hikaru's name Hikari instead and had to rewrite them all, so please don't bother if you find examples that I have missed. Hope you will enjoy **

**Disclaimer: All the characters, the tools, the names, everything belongs to the creator of Clumsy Ninja, except for Hikaru, who is my OC.**

* * *

** The Clumsy Ninja and the Hotheaded Trainer**

A far away town in Japan, a calm and peaceful town where ordinary people lived ordinary and peaceful lives together with their friends and families. A nice town where people lived in their wooden houses, worked on the fields, harvested and grew vegetables and fruits, the children ran across the streets and played in the nearby woods along with the animals, no one was rich and no one was poor, and everyone was happy in this little town. You might've wanted to call it a village, but the townspeople referred to it as a town, so it would appear that that is what it is, then.

There was one thing that differed this town from others, though: In this town, there was a great dojo where they trained ninjas. The sensei was a short old man with white hair and a long white moustache.

Every student was working hard, both with their ninja training and their school academy work, of course, and they were all making big progress. Except for one. One single ninja, that despite all his hard work, barely could land a punch on a training dummy. He had no parents nor siblings, no known relatives whatsoever. In fact, he didn't even have a name when he first came into the town, and so most of the townspeople came to call him Nameless, and the other children nicknamed him Shyguy, because he was a very shy and innocent individual.

But despite all that, this little ninja had fought hard ever since he was a child, struggled to learn and always kept trying, really wanting to become a skilled ninja. And the sensei had tried to help him as much as he possibly could, but as the other students needed a splendid teacher as well, he simply couldn't afford to give the clumsy ninja the constant attention that he needed. So the sensei eventually started hiring decent trainers, gym leaders, and even sumo fighters to help and train the ungracious ninja get rid of his clumsiness and make progress. But without results. And eventually all his trainers got tired of trying to teach someone who just refused to learn, implying that he was a hopeless case, and simply gave up. And the poor clumsy fellow couldn't do anything about it, even though he tried his best.

And this is all the reason, to what caused a female ninja trainer, a few years older than the instable ninja – who had recently turned fourteen – , to stand by the small wooden, blue-painted gate that was an entrance to the town a cool spring morning, pacing somewhat impatiently in a small circle, waiting to be allowed inside.

A while later, the gates opened and the sensei approached the young lady with a welcoming smile. "Oh, you must be the trainer we have been awaiting! I apologize for not being able to have met up with you earlier, but truth to be told, I had not expected you to be here _this _early. Hikaru-san, was it?" he added politely. "I am truly grateful that you traveled all the way here at my request."

The girl nodded impatiently and shook his hand. "That's alright, I haven't had that much job to do anyway. Might as well come here." She had a constant frown on her forehead as she spoke. She had black hair mixed with light grey hair straws, tied up in a poorly made bun, a lot of straws sticking out in different directions. Her skin was the opposite of pale, she looked like she'd spent a lot of time outside and got a lot of sunburns, which matched her bronze-like eyes. Her cheeks had sharper colors, probably because of the chilly winds. She didn't seem to care much for fashion – or perhaps she was either too poor or just too lazy to fix it – if you judged her clothing: She wore a dark top underneath a rather worn leather jacket and had a thin red scarf with yellow patterns on, that she had pulled up so that it covered her chin. Her pants were somewhat torn, but the belt's quality seemed fine, at least, as did the shoes'.

"Well, welcome to our town. Let us walk," the sensei continued gently, and held the gate open for the guest. She didn't linger outside for long.

She allowed the sensei to lead the way into the town and across the streets, and walked beside him and listened as he told her that her soon-to-be apprentice was currently waiting at the dojo.

"I am so glad that you could make it, my dear, and I am sure our little ninja will be as well. I'm sure you two will get along well – ah, here we go," he said as they approached the wooden building.

Meanwhile, inside, the young nameless ninja was trying to make himself stand on his hands, which was easier said than done, especially for him. He shut his eyes hard and let his feet leave the ground, but just as they almost were above his head, his head dropped to the ground and he rolled over, landed on his back on the floor with a thump and blinked a few times. Then he sat up with a disappointed expression on his face; just like every other time he had tried something and the only thing he managed was failure.

His clothing was typical for a ninja: He wore a black suit, black pants, black sandals and a black mask that concealed pretty much all of his face except his big eyes, and he had a red belt tied around his waist and a red headband; Red was the first grade color in this town.

As the nameless ninja was sitting there, he thought rapidly for a moment about his entire time in the dojo, and he suddenly came to think of his previous trainers, and then he suddenly remembered that a new one was going to come to the town today. And the thought lit him up, and he wondered what kind of person he would be. His other trainers had been kind for most of the time; would his new trainer be like that as well?

But as he was sitting on the floor, lost in innocent thinking, the wooden doors on his right suddenly slid open, and Sensei entered, along with a stranger he had never seen before.

He was not a quick thinker, but then the thought struck him that this lady – who looked like she was a couple of years older than him – might be the new trainer that they had been waiting for! He hurriedly jumped to his feet, barely able to avoid tripping over, and immediately positioned himself with a straight body and arms by his sides, like a soldier in front of his commander, looking both nervously and eagerly towards the two.

The frowning girl observed him. "This is him?" she asked Sensei, without turning away from the nameless ninja. He tried to avoid eye contact, to show as much respect as possible.

"Yes, indeed. And this is Hikaru," Sensei said to the ninja, "of whom you have heard of already."

The ninja cast repeated quick glances at Hikaru, nodded hastily and almost tripped over as he bowed deeply and greeted in a light voice: "Nice to meet you, Hikaru-san!"

He was looking at her feet, but he could still feel her eyes on him. Soon she replied: "What's your name, kid?"

"Oh, he doesn't have a name," Sensei answered in the nameless ninja's place, "so we usually call him Nameless."

The nameless fellow carefully peeked at Hikari, and wondered how she would react. The other trainers wouldn't have bothered.

He saw that Hikaru turned her head and raised a sceptic eyebrow at the old man. "'Nameless'?" she exclaimed. "Really? Well, that won't do. I sure as hell can't train someone who ain't got a name." She turned to the ninja who immediately looked down and tried to bow deeper as she looked his way. Hikaru scratched her head with a thoughtful, and bit impatient frown, before she spoke: "Well, you don't seem to be very gracious, and you look like you're about to trip over your own feet… so I guess Clumsy will have to do." She said.

The ninja lifted his head to carefully watch her, and he blinked a few times with his big eyes. "C…Clumsy?" he said quietly.

"Yeah."

At first, Clumsy was quiet, but then, to Sensei's surprise, he suddenly lightened up and nodded enthusiastically, and a happy blush even appeared on his cheeks. He seemed really happy to have been given a name, even though it defined his strong inability. Sensei realized that being nameless might not have been so easy for him.

As the enthusiasm finally ran off his body, Clumsy saw Sensei cross his hands behind his back and turn to Hikaru. "Well, as I have told you, this young one is rather – or should I say most utterly – ungracious and unstable. Clumsy, like you said."

"Well, he won't be when I'm done with him," was Hikaru's reply, and Clumsy was not sure what he was going to think about that. Sensei smiled, though. "I am glad to hear it. I sincerely hope that you will be able to help and support him, that you will succeed in what no other trainer has." He continued with a momentarily serious face, but he soon smiled once again. "Please help yourself to anything in the dojo, and if you need anything, just ask me," he said and shook Hikaru's hand and winked in Clumsy's direction, before he walked towards the exit and slid the doors open. "Goodbye, you two, and good luck." He smiled before he slid the doors shut behind him, and left the remaining two alone inside the dojo.

Hikaru didn't let the silence last for long, though. She turned to Clumsy with a determined look on her face. "Alright, let's get to it," she said, "where does your Sensei keep the training tools?"

Clumsy immediately nodded and showed her across the hall to a storage where they kept all the basic stuff. Inside there were trampolines, well-used training dummies, old punch bags, ropes, balance boards and a pile of balls.

"This is some storage," Hikaru muttered as she looked inside and scanned every single tool, mumbling a little to herself. She wrinkled her nose when she spotted a small pile of dust. "'The hell?"

Clumsy stood by in silence, waiting for Hikaru to say something. She kept fingering on the wooden door for a couple of seconds.

"Ok, let's start with something basic… a trampoline," she said after a while and went into the storage. Clumsy could hear her cursing over stupid tools, but then she came out with the trampoline – an old thing, not of the best quality – which was probably the oldest one they had. It was cracky and worn after all the years of jumping.

"This," Hikaru gave it a pat, "is the beginner's trampoline: the First Jumper. Walk with me." She added, nodded at the door which led to the wooden porch of the outside training ground, and walked there with Clumsy.

The trampoline creaked a little while Hikaru carried it. Clumsy looked at it carefully, not to offend Hikaru in any sort of disrespectful way. To be honest, that trampoline looked like it could break to pieces any moment.

Hikaru noticed his gaze as she set the First Jumper on the training ground and her frown grew deeper. "Don't gimme that look, this thing works just fine." She assured him, "And by the way it's a perfect start for you, if all the things your Sensei said are true." She added with eyes of contempt.

Clumsy didn't reply to that one, but nodded in agreement. He could feel his body tense up; he was actually quite excited about this, and he hoped that his new trainer felt the same way. _She _on the other hand, just seemed impatient about getting the whole thing started. "Well, what are you waiting for?" she said, and pointed at the trampoline, "Let's get started immediately. Get on!"

And Clumsy obeyed quickly, grabbed the edge of the trampoline with his hands and pulled himself up, not too gracefully. He was a little shaky when he stood up on the unsteady carpet. He had never been good at this.

Hikaru gazed at him. "Well, what are you waiting for? Jump!" she ordered.

Clumsy swallowed hard; he really wanted to prove himself worthy of her help, but at the same time he was now scared that he might make a complete fool out of himself. But he couldn't just back down now, so he carefully started to hop. His legs were already shaking, and he was waving his arms for balance. He continued to jump, but when he was only a few feet above the trampoline, he lost his balance and fell off with a thump.

He could feel Hikaru's eyes burn his neck. "You really have no balance at all," she said, and Clumsy couldn't make out if she said it with despise or not.

Clumsy stood up and was about to go back up on the trampoline, when Hikaru shook her head and stopped him. "No, don't. Let's wait with the trampoline," she said and threw it to the side. She looked up and met his nervous eyes with her constant frown, and then she observed his body.

After a while, she groaned irritably. "Really, just _look _at your body!" she exclaimed. "You don't have a single muscle in there, no wonder your legs are shaking like a fuckin' toddler's."

Clumsy's eyes wandered a little, but he watched her every move carefully, as she took a few steps back and pointed an index finger at him. "Alright, listen!" she said loudly, and she met his gaze with fire in her eyes. "Change of plans. We'll have to force some attitude into that lazy body of yours," she pointed around the training ground. "Ten rounds! Come on, chop chop!" she ordered impatiently when he wasn't moving, and Clumsy immediately set off.

"Then do 50 push-ups, 10 more rounds around the training ground, and then 70 sit-ups! And do it fast!" she shouted at him. "Give it your all! Let's give you some sturdy legs before you attack that trampoline."


	2. Food Fight

** Food Fight**

That day was probably the most breathtaking day in Clumsy's life. Breathtaking, literally; he ran countless times around the training ground, and Hikaru made him do push-ups and sit-ups and back exercises and balance and body exercises until every inch of his body was aching, and both his arms and legs were shaking at the end of the day.

He wasn't given any breaks at all that day, not until 22 o'clock when he was given three rice balls and a bunch of vegetables and a delicious soup. Clumsy and Hikaru sat on the wooden floor of the dojo's outside porch. Clumsy was way too tired to say anything at all, so after a couple of minutes of gasping and catching his breath, he was finally able to settle down and managed to start with his soup.

Hikaru-san really knows a lot about hardcore-training, Clumsy thought while he tasted the soup. But he barely managed to finish that thought in his head before he felt his throat burn, and he glared down in the bowl and wondered what he just ate.

"It's my home-made chili soup," Hikaru said. "And don't you dare spit that out!" she added fiercely when she saw Clumsy's face turn blazing red. "It's good and healthy for you, and it will give you the energy you need to train, and more on top of that,"

Clumsy nodded with exertion, but he could literally feel his insides heat up as he forced the burning liquid down his throat. Hikaru watched him with a suspicious raised eyebrow, and Clumsy feared for what would happen if he offended her soup.

"It… was… _delicious," _he hissed and forced himself to smile.

"It'd better be." Hikaru rose and strode away towards the storage. "I'll be back in a minute, and you'd better be done by then!" she called over her shoulder.

Clumsy sat motionless with the hot bowl in his hands. He couldn't possibly eat any more of this, he would die, burn from the inside. "I could just throw it away…" he said innocently to himself and carefully and quietly rose with the bowl. He was just about to tip it over, when he heard a woman clear her throat behind him, and a chill went through his body.

He had no idea how or when she did it, but Hikaru was standing behind him with her hands tightly gripping her hips, and she looked far from friendly when she looked down at him. "You just prolonged your training day," she said coolly. "300 rounds. Now."

* * *

The following two hours were almost worse than the previous ones, and when Clumsy finally was allowed into the dojo for the night, everything was a blur, and he was so dizzy and shaky, he could barely tell the difference between right and left as he stumbled towards the place where they were going to sleep.

Just as he was about to fall onto the pile of soft, wonderful blankets that was lying on the floor, Hikaru held him back. "Uh, uh," she said, and pointed down, "Sleeping on the floor will do you good."

Clumsy blinked a few times at her, way too tired to protest. He nodded slowly, and with the usual innocent expression on his face, he carefully lied down on the cold wooden floor and curled up like a squirrel. He fell asleep at once, and drifted into a deep, dreamless slumber.

* * *

"Get uuuup," Hikaru's voice woke him up, and after he had opened and rubbed his eyes, he realized that he was hanging up and down with his head a few inches above the ground. He looked down – which was up in reality – towards his feet, confused, and saw that Hikaru was holding him up by his left leg, and she was frowning at him as usual. She held up a watch close to his face. "She's six in the morning and it's time for you to get up and train!" she said.

"Yes, Hikaru-san!" Clumsy answered respectfully, and Hikaru dropped him to the ground.

* * *

After a hasty and light breakfast, Clumsy was ordered to jog around the town two times as a warm-up. After that, he was ordered to walk five times around the dojo on his hands, holding up Hikaru by his feet while she constantly shouted orders at him. He spent nine out of ten minutes falling to the ground and struggling to get up at his hands again, constantly stimulated by a fierce and impatient Hikaru. "Come on, get up, don't lie there like a fat fuckin' cow! You can rest later, now you have to _fight! _Show some attitude, kill those worthless ideas in your head that tell you to give up!" she shouted.

At the middle of the day, they came back from a training session in the forest, and Clumsy fell onto the training ground by the dojo. But he barely got to catch his breath before Hikaru was on him again. "Come on, Clumsy, get up! We're not done yet," she exclaimed irritably and dragged him to his feet, "It's just the opposite: This is where the real shit begins."

Clumsy looked at her questioningly, but before he was able to say anything, Hikaru pushed him out on the training ground. "Start running!" she ordered. "I've bought a few things that will be necessary for this training session."

And Clumsy set off, unaware of what kind of training tool that Hikaru had prepared for him. He ran as fast as he could, determined to show Hikari that he was able to continue. Meanwhile, he noticed that his trainer had fetched a fresh and frozen pie from inside. "Don't mind this," Hikaru said when she noticed his gazes, "I'm just gonna let it thaw a bit, while we're here,"

Clumsy kept on running. He didn't really keep track on how far he had run, when a watermelon suddenly came flying towards him with incredible speed. Clumsy, who clearly didn't see this coming, and was caught by clear surprise, had barely been able to gasp in shock before the big fruit exploded right in the face and threw him backwards and making him land on his head, drenched in red juice.

He could hear Hikaru groan. "You have to use your reflexes to dodge things flying towards you!" she shouted while Clumsy unsteadily sat up, shaking his dizzy head. "Alright, think fast!" Hikaru called, and the next second, a dozen of big green watermelons darted through the air towards him, and he barely got time to react nor think fast before they were all on him in. He desperately waved his arms in attempt to deflect them, and he tried to remember what his previous trainers had told him about defending yourself as he punched as many fruits as possible. He couldn't avoid getting hit by at least half of them, though, and he eventually ended up on the ground the same way as before, half drowned and half beaten to a pulp.

"No, no, no!" Hikaru bellowed impatiently, "Now you're trying to catch sight of the watermelons! Don't do that! Trust your instincts, use your reflexes!" and with that, she threw another watermelon at him, which he barely managed to dodge.

"Your reflexes, Clumsy!" she called. "If you don't learn how to use them, you'll never survive as a ninja, and you'll never be able to walk the Path of the Ninja!"

Clumsy desperately tried to listen to what she said and follow her orders, but he knew nothing about his own reflexes nor instincts, and even less knew how to use them, and Hikaru was throwing things at him at such remarkable speed that he barely managed to stand on his feet.

After a few minutes of flying objects, Hikaru suddenly stopped throwing things at him. Clumsy imagined her shaking her head. "You ungraceful being, you can do better," she said impatiently. "Don't think about your Sensei, or the citizens or the animals or anything – just focus, don't think, just act!" she snarled, but Clumsy couldn't see what she was doing because his eyes were full of watermelon juice. "Whatever the hell your reason is for wanting to become a full-fledged ninja, you can't just fuckin' become one without putting up a fight! Now, use – your – _reflexes!" _Hikaru shouted, and then, at that exact moment, Clumsy could feel something run through his body, like an adrenaline kick.

Reflex. Instinct. Sensei. Reason. Motive… Kira.

_SPLAT!_

Silence. Clumsy slowly and carefully opened his eyes, started blinking and slowly rubbed the juice out of his eyes, enabling him to see. He stared at the ground in shock: On the sandy ground, the fragments of a shattered watermelon were lying.

Clumsy blinked, utterly confused. He hit the melon? He glared at his right arm, which was pointing out in an unique angle in front of his face, and he saw that it was covered in fruit. He split the watermelon?

He heard a pleased sound coming from Hikaru's direction. "_That's _what I'm fuckin' talking about!" she exclaimed. "Clutz, you did it."

He did it? Clumsy raised his head and stared at Hikaru, who was watching him from distance, hands placed on her hips, and something that actually resembled a smirk was marked on her face. He actually did it.

Clumsy blinked a few times. A few seconds of realization. And then the fierce joy shot through his body, and his face cracked into a big smile, and he took a leap into the air – he landed clumsily – and victory posed happily. "I did it! I used my reflexes! I did it, Hikaru-san! Yes! _Yes!" _he shouted in his light voice, and even Hikaru had to snigger.

"Yeah, yeah, good work," she said and shook her head in amusement as the happy ninja jumped round and around and around and around and around – until he squashed Hikaru's pie that was standing on the ground.

Silence.

Hikaru glared at him with widened eyes, she glared at him as if she'd never seen him before.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, YOU SON OF A -!?"

* * *

**That obviously didn't end so well, so we don't have to recall that event. **

* * *

The rest of the day, Clumsy trained but only his concentration, coordination and mind – and on top of that Hikaru made sure that he got somewhat starved too, because of the fact that he had ruined her dessert – and none of the following was very easy for the ungraceful ninja.

The rest of the week they trained Clumsy's fitness, because he was way too slack and soft in his limbs the way he was now, and at the end of the week, he got a second chance on the First Jumper; it took a long time for him to get the hang of it, and Hikaru wasn't pleased until he had jumped at least five times without falling off – which he continued to do – , but if you observed him carefully, you might even see that he was a little, little, little, microscopical bit better than the first day of training.

But the naïve mind of Clumsy would of course not notice that, neither would the temper of Hakuri allow her mind to.

Though during the following weeks of hardcore training, despite the fact that Hakuri's short temper and unique – let us call it unique – personality often – or nearly always – made her rage at Clumsy, the innocent ninja actually almost immediately grew fond and addicted to his new trainer.


	3. Clumsy's Motive

**Clumsy's Motive**

"Come on, you lazy pompous ass!" Hakuri called impatiently from her spot at the top of the hay-cart loaded with wheat and corn and hay, which poor Clumsy was pulling. "Your farmer-friends are gonna complain if we don't hurry up."

Well, "we" wasn't really right. This was what a lot of Clumsy's tasks consisted of lately: To help the citizens with the extra hard work, now that the days were getting warmer and the crops were growing like never before.

Clumsy pulled the heavy hay-cart downhill and uphill, all the way from the fields to the town, back and forth. He had been doing this the entire day, and this was the final cargo.

The citizens – who thanks to Clumsy, didn't have to work so much this day – thanked him and Hakuri warmly after they had delivered the final cargo, and some even offered them rewards like fruit, food and even some money, even though Hikaru had told them that they wouldn't charge them for payment.

But of course they accepted their offerings, and carried them all back to the dojo, where the two settled down for a little relax and snack-time, which by the way was really rare. Hakuri made Clumsy use his hands to chop the fruits in half and then mix them into a yummy fruit salad. Hakuri took out a small piece of banana and swallowed it. Then she wrinkled her nose in criticism. "These fruits could use some cream, or at least some sugar," she stated and immediately set off towards the doors, "Wait here, and _don't even think about starting before me," _she added over her shoulder before she disappeared.

Clumsy nodded, "I promise I won't, Hakuri-san." He promised, even though she couldn't hear him.

He sat in silence for a couple of minutes and just daydreamed for a while; he thought about the town, his Sensei, the citizens, his old classmates…

Old classmates. He lingered at that thought. Suddenly he stuck his hand inside his ninja robe and searched his pockets for a very special and precious thing; he took out a photo. He looked at it, and his face suddenly saddened when he recalled the memories.

I wonder… he began in his mind, but he didn't get the time to finish his thought, because suddenly a fierce wind blew through the atmosphere, and the horrific thing was that it took the photo and brought it away.

Clumsy got to his feet, his face pale and more terrified than ever. "No!" he exclaimed and leapt after the photo. "No, no, no, _no, stop!" _he called after it, and desperately tried to grab it, but the only thing that he caught was air, and the photo kept sailing higher and higher, out of his reach, away from him…

Just as Clumsy was about to scream, a shadow darted through the air, faster than any shuriken or thrown kunai, and the next second, before the poor ninja realized what happened, Hakuri was standing on the roof of the dojo, holding a bottle of cream in one hand and the photo in the other.

"Hakuri-san!" Clumsy exclaimed. He had never been so happy to see her.

Hakuri turned around and looked down at him, raised eyebrow like always. "What's the commotion? God, Clumsy, I was gone for barely five minutes, and you already look like you've been stabbed by someone," she said and jumped down of off the roof, and Clumsy ran up to her.

Hakuri cast a casual glance at the photo in her hands. "This is why you look paler than an eggshell?" she said, and handed Clumsy the photo, which he eagerly, yet carefully took. "Thank you so much, Hakuri-san," he whispered after staring at the photo for a while.

She just waved her hand a little and returned to the porch, where the fruit salad was. An irritated groan escaped her lips. "Clumsy, what the hell?! Now there are flies in the goddamn salad! 'The fuck, you could have thought about guarding this shit before rushing off," she said angrily, "You hear me, Clumsy?" she called over her shoulder.

But Clumsy didn't answer. He was standing at the middle of the training ground, staring quietly at the photo in his hands while the wind softly brushed the sandy ground around him.

"Clumsy?" Hakuri turned around with a tired look on her face, but that expression changed when she saw him. She sighed shortly, and then she walked up to him. She looked over his shoulder – not hard since she was a little taller than him – and glanced at the photo.

It seemed to have been taken here at the dojo, judging by the background. In the foreground though, Clumsy was standing with a happy and a little embarrassed face, as he was embraced by a pretty girl who was dressed just like him – assumingly she was a ninja too –, with glittery blue eyes and a sling of red hair revealing itself from underneath the hood. She was smiling too, and the two of them looked very happy.

"Your girlfriend?" Hakuri asked indifferently, making Clumsy wince and blush.

"No," he answered when Hakuri cocked an eyebrow at him, "She's not my girlfriend,"

"But you like her?"

Now he was really embarrassed. He shut his eyes and hided his face behind the photo to conceal his fierce blush.

Hakuri rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it," she snorted, and Clumsy slowly removed the photo from his face. Hakuri noticed that he looked very sad again.

"She's your friend, then?" she asked, and Clumsy nodded.

"She was," he replied, making Hakuri raise yet another eyebrow at him. It took a while for Clumsy to continue, he seemed to be dreaming himself far away as he stared at the photo. Hakuri didn't interrupt, and waited patiently – wow – for him to speak. "Her name is Kira," he started dreamily. "She was my best friend, and the only one who didn't tease me for being clumsy," he said after a while in his usual light voice. "We were often together, and instead of making fun of me when I did something wrong, she laughed kindly and tried to help me instead. But then one day" he paused, "the day after Sensei took this photo of us, she disappeared," his expression was hard to read. "And the townsfolk said that they had seen a great shadow defeat her and take her away," he finished quietly.

He very well remembered the day they had taken the photo, he remembered it as clear as if it would've been yesterday it happened;

_He sat at the wooden bench by the dojo and watched Kira as she trained outside with the toughest punch bag the dojo had. She moved as swiftly and graciously as a cat, relaxed and concentrated, and despite her thin figure, her punches were just as hard as Sensei's. _

_Clumsy watched her every detailed move, and he felt his heart beat fast as he looked at her; she was _so _beautiful, her red hair, her black ninja suit and most of all her eyes, those shining, blue eyes. He watched her as she took a leap into the air, swiftly twisted her entire body and struck the punch bag right in the middle with a perfect-landed kick._

_Clumsy gasped in admiration; Kira was so good! And yet he was too shy to tell her that. He clenched his fists and swallowed hard as she took a breather and brushed off her clothes before she turned his way and walked up to the bench. "Now you try," she said as she stood in front of him, and she smiled at him in that wonderful way that only Kira could._

_Clumsy nodded and ran up to the punch bag. Ok, concentrate, he told himself, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he opened his eyes and glared at the punch bag, took a leap – and flew straight into the hard sack and fell onto the ground, blinking in confusion._

_Kira covered her mouth with her hand to keep herself from laughing, but she couldn't help but smile in an amused way as she rose and walked up to her friend, who was still sitting on the ground, completely clueless. She bent down and offered him her hand, which he accepted, and then she pulled him up and embraced him with a loving smile, and Clumsy smiled back, both embarrassed and very happy._

That was when they took the photo, he remembered that very well. After recalling that day in his head, he turned to Hakuri, who was still watching him with a deep frown and her arms crossed. "Do you think it's true?" he asked her. "That she was kidnapped?"

Hakuri answered with a light shrug. "I don't know," she said and then stared into the air for a while. Everything was silent. "That girl is your motive, then?" she asked after a while.

Clumsy looked at her questioningly. She nodded at the photo. "The girl, Kira. She's your reason for wanting to get stronger, right?"

Clumsy looked at her, then at the photo. "Yes," he answered. "I want to travel the Path of the Ninja and get stronger, so that I can save her," and when he said this, Hakuri noticed something in his eyes that she hadn't seen often before: Determination. Willpower.

She observed his still figure for a while, before she closed her eyes for a moment, and then she looked up into the sky. "That is good," she said. The wind softly brushed their skins as they stood there.

"You're the first one, except for Sensei, to have ever listened to me like this," Clumsy said quietly after a while, "Everyone else thinks I'm stupid and naïve to believe that I can save Kira."

Hakuri almost smirked, ending with a snort. "Well, fuck those guys," she said, staring up at the clouds, "You might be stupid and you might be naïve," she continued, and Clumsy looked at her, "but that doesn't mean that you don't have the stubbornness and guts to get stronger and save your friend," she added. "People who say otherwise are idiots."

Clumsy just looked at her, his eyes were glittery now, and his face was full of color again. He wanted to say something to her, but his tongue wouldn't move.

Hakuri on the other hand, seemed to consider this conversation over, and she sighed a bit before she looked at him with the usual impatience in her eyes. "Let's go eat some fruit salad already, now that I've got the cream," she said with a pleased look, and Clumsy nodded gladly.

Hakuri set off towards the cool shadows of the porch, and Clumsy followed her.

"…Hakuri-san," he said carefully.

"Yeah?"

"…Thank you,"

He could imagine her roll her eyes as he looked at her back. "Don't get too sugary sweet," she said, with a hint of a smile in her voice, "You'll melt in the sun,"

Clumsy smiled and ran up beside her. He suddenly felt better than he had done for weeks, and he felt warm and happy and safe as he sat down beside Hakuri on the wooden floor of the porch. He went back into his childish and relaxed world as he dug in at a new delicious fruit salad, after Hakuri had raged at the previous insect-invaded one and threw it across the yard.

Clumsy laughed sweetly, and smiled more than he had done in a while. As Hakuri muttered angrily while she scooped cream on her salad, Clumsy leaned his back against one of the poles which held up the porch's ceiling. He looked up and stared out a small hole in the wood, and met the sky with his gaze. One of the clouds resembled a thick "K" and he immediately thought of Kira.

He wondered where she was right now, if she was fine, who had kidnapped her, if she was his or her slave, if he would ever see her again, if now she remembered him at all?


End file.
